Denton’s music scene attracted curious scribes from far away places.

First came a Sunday write-up in The New York Times. The article lost points for regional accuracy when it mentioned peanut fields, which haven’t had much commercial or agricultural heft in a generation or two.

Lucinda Breeding

More recently, Paste — a magazine that competes with Rolling Stone, by the way — crowned Denton the Best Music Scene of 2008, thanks to the teeming house parties that produce spontaneous and superb jams that only sometimes lead to recordings.

Creative types in Denton have wondered where this kind of recognition could lead. Can the city and the Greater Denton Arts Council find smart ways to promote an unpredictable Bohemia?

What can Denton build from these platforms of praise, and if Denton builds it, will cultured travelers come and spend?

Whether or not Denton is the next Austin, as Beehner suggested, is a mystery that will require cooperation between both civic and commercial forces.

When that happens — if that happens — Denton will have quite a lineup for the celebration. 

Ani-maniacs

Howard K. Grossman said he “flipped out” over the first Brave Combo song he heard. It was the Denton polka band’s version of “The William Tell Overture,” and Grossman heard it while sitting in a room with a production team. The group included Doug Berman, the producer of the syndicated National Public Radio program, Car Talk, starring brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi.

With a slew of award-winning animators listening, Berman pressed “play” and asked Grossman to imagine a cartoon character’s hands on a cartoon steering wheel.

Grossman, the director of Car Talk TV, had created an animated series, As The Wrench Turns, based on the public radio show. He thought Brave Combo’s music was a perfect match for the ebullient, but sophisticated, animation.

“We scored, I’d say, probably about 150 pieces of music for the show,” said Carl Finch, who is credited as the music producer, composer and arranger for all 10 episodes. Brave Combo earned performing credits for every episode. “It was everything from sound effects to other songs. Musical cues up to fully blown songs with fairly complex orchestration.”

The International Animated Film Society has since nominated brave Combo for an “Annie” award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form.

Theatre school accolades

Denton Theatre School students brought home a nifty award in 2008.

Etiquette training showed so well that the troupe members of the Pied Piper Players, the theater school’s new traveling youth company, earned the Back Stage award at the Texas Nonprofit Theatres Inc. annual youth conference last June.

The event came to Denton, where 15 youth companies brought children and teens to workshops and showcase performances.

“I think what it does is reflect on the whole attitude of the Denton Community Theatre,” said managing director Mike Barrow. “We do a great job of putting on community theater productions with a professional flair. I’ve heard that so many times from our patrons who’ve seen theater in New York, in Chicago and in Dallas. We do community theater, but we’re really professional about it. I think that it’s a trickle-down to the kids, and it’s a great reflection on Mildred [Peveto, the director of the school].”

Denton Theatre School offers after-school and summer classes and camps to children and teens on everything from creativity to musical theater. Usually, camps end with a production that uses students on stage and behind the scenes.

Puppet masters

Texas Woman’s University put on a beautiful, artful play, Alice in Wonderland. The cast was none other than a fanciful forest of animals, crafted into Asian-inspired puppets operated by three actors.

DRC file photo/Gary Payne

Tiffany Fetty, left, Clay White, Georgie Jinks, and Gerald Young act out a scene on a break during an Alice in Wonderland rehearsal at the Redbud Theater at Texas Woman’s University on Oct. 31, 2007. The school took the show to the Fringe Festival in Scotland last summer.

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There, the play shared the town with cutting-edge theater from companies from all over the world. The Fringe Festival is widely regarded as the place where the world’s best theater is in the making. Invitations are hard to come by, and funding the trip is another job altogether.

What sets TWU apart from regional theater is the program’s ability to plan a season that could catch the fancy of the whole family, while talking down to none.

Amuck in the gallery

Greater Denton Arts Council revived its dormant docent program, and re-organized it. Now, the council has a rotating roster of volunteers who have done exhaustive research and have written scripts for tours through the Meadows Gallery and the Ray & Georgia Gogh Gallery.

The docents gained more volunteers last summer when the council presented a luncheon. Now, the galleries are teaching school and private tours for hundreds of people who come to the public galleries.

“Bringing children in, it really opens their eyes that this isn’t just a picture,” said docent Jean Greenlaw. “It has a story and a life and a whole world going on around it. You really are opening their eyes and teaching them to see art in a different way.”

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com.